Advanced ActionScript Help!

I have a project Im working on that is due in 2 days, and this is the flash piece I'm emulating with my tweaks: http://www.burstlabs.com/

What im doing is making the bubbles *not overlap and have them hover in a circle formation. So what I'm using, which is the only way i can think of is springs. My code is below, and any help would be totally appreciated and this is a totally sweet project to add to anyones resumes. If you happen to live in Michigan and your an actionscript guru I will buy you a drink if you can help me on this! : )

could you be a little more specific about whats wrong? You won't get much help by saying your trying to copy something and not telling us whats broken

ScRat0i71

Novice

Posts: 15

Loc: Detroit

3+ Months Ago

Ahh yes. That would make sense as well.

If you check the link http://www.burstlabs.com/ and compare it to my project http://romanodx.com/projects/xxxxxx/bubbleTest.html you will notice quite a bit of difference.

My problem arises here:
1) - I need fluid like movement within a circular barrier like this site.

2) - Need to dynamically tween a rollover popup instead of an instant grow and back look. (smooth transition up and down). Right now its just bubbleArray[i]._width += 30; bubbleArray[i]._height += 5; thats the code for now. I'm thinking it has to be a function because the size is generated different every time and I cant use the lmc_tween to just scale up or down, because it returns the dynamically generated random size to the set size of 100...

3) - Objects that are floating can not overlap each other and must stay in a sort of circular arrangement. I'm not an actionscript genious, but the only thing I can find that is remotely close to what i need is using springs? I'm really not sure how to go about this neat effect.

What I have done in this project, or thought would work is this:
1) - Use "Actionscript Animation - Making things move" by Keith Peters chapter 8 "springs" and try to make a motion without using gravity so all the array controlled instances will bounce off eachother with a 10 pixel shell in between, which obviously in my example is a lot bigger than 10 pixels and I cant figure that out.

2) - Use another "spring" type movement to form a circular pattern. Using the springTo function in this script I was hoping to link one instance to the middle "circle" that is hidden, and then link all the others to the one that is linked to the circle, and the last one linked to the circle so its a chain around the circle. That, however, is not working at the moment. (you will notice a simple line trying to draw to the position of one box every time to show a link to the middle "circle" thats hidden.)

I hope this explanation will help show you what I'm trying to do with this.
Also, copy my actionscript and paste it into flash and create an instance of a movieclip on the stage called bubble, and create another movieclip on the stage of a circle and in the linkage name it circle. If you use AIM or MSN please add my screen name and I can talk and better explain if a question arises of what it is I'm looking to do.

Thanks a million! : )

dhonsvick

Beginner

Posts: 49

3+ Months Ago

Heres a fluid Grow and Shrink function. Put these functions in your actions frame under root.

clip.startXscale = clip._xscale; - clip is a reference to what ever movieclip you pass to the function so this just takes that clip and makes a variable inside of it thats equal to the xscale before the transform occurs.

Then when you shrink the clip back down you want to read in the start value stored in the clip instead of the default 100% value that dhonsvick used.

ScRat0i71

Novice

Posts: 15

Loc: Detroit

3+ Months Ago

Awesome! Thanks man! When i get the chance i will put that in and that is definitely what im looking for!

Would you happen to know anything about loading xml into dynamically created instances that float around without touching each other?

graphixboy

Control + Z

Posts: 1826

Loc: In the Great White North

3+ Months Ago

just about everything you could possibly need to know about xml to use it in Flash via Kirupa.com